Here are the results of the Inaugural Razzball Invitational Fantasy Football Experts Draft, IRIFFED for short. It is a 10 team, non ppr league. Pretty much the same as all your leagues unless you get all funky with slots for announcers and beer commercials. All the managers are bloggers and you can find some of them just to the right a little bit down in Mom’s Basement.

I never have a set strategy going into drafts besides trying see how many Goose Island IPA’s I can have before the draft is done. But I usually have some very basic goals in mind. I’ve said it before, but I am an old school RB/RB kind of drafter, but with the 10 slot that idea often is scrapped for some hot wide receiver action. I wasn’t overly pleased with this draft, but I think I can be a contender. Take a look see.

1. (10) Chris Johnson: I felt like he was the best RB left on the board. I really didn’t have anybody else I wanted here.

2. (11) Randy Moss: He’s my number one WR this year and I think he’s going to be mooning the world after a whole bunch of TD’s. It was between him and Frank Gore, but I was hoping my man Ronnie Brown was going to come back to me.

3. (30) Kevin Smith: Alas, no such luck with Ronnie. The RB pickins were slim and I wasn’t about to ride a nuclear warhead down onto Russia with my cowboy hat a wavin’ while waiting on a RB. So I picked Smith. I think he will be solid this year. I chose him over Pierre Thomas which may come back to haunt me if Bush goes down early.

4. (31) Wes Welker: Seems to be a theme here with Patriot receivers. This league runs with three wide receivers so I needed my second one quickly and I felt Wes was the best left, but I sure don’t care to put all my eggs in one Patriot basket, but I did.

5. (50) Marshawn Lynch: My first backup pick. I like stacking my RB’s since they go down so easily and Lynch is already down for the first three games. I felt like he had good value in the fifth round and really could be better than K. Smith, so he might end up being my starter.

6. (51) Aaron Rodgers: I like Rodgers a lot this year, but I always end up thinking I should have waited on a QB.

7. (70) Donald Driver: With my top 3 receivers I like to play it conservatively and go with consistency. Driver is the bran flakes of wide receivers.

8. (71) Larry Johnson: LJ is flying under the radar this year and probably for good reason. Haley’s new offense may not be the best fit for LJ, but the guy still seems to have his legs and he hasn’t been completely overused in his career. He still had 4.4 yards per carry last year. He could do something this year besides spit drinks at women.

9. (90) Kellen Winslow: I wanted Greg Olsen, but missed out. Winslow should get plenty of work in Tampa’s conservative offense.

10. (91) Kurt Warner: Just couldn’t pass up on the old man this late. I won’t be taking him with my first QB pick this year, but if he can stay healthy he may supplant Rodgers as my starter. I feel pretty good about my QB’s.

11. (110) Percy Harvin: My only rookie pick. Harvin is getting a lot of hype in training camp and I’m buying in. He is a rookie and could be over his head, but he’s got upside out the backside.

12. (111) Fred Jackson: A Lynch handcuff. He knows how that feels.

13. (130) Steve Smith (NYG): I’m gambling that Smith is the #1 over Hixon. I’m playing with house money at pick 130.

14. (131) Minnesota: Had to pick a D.

15. (150) Earl Bennett: Another wide receiver gamble. Cutler used to play grab ass with Bennett at Vanderbilt.

holy shit, how did Warner last until #91?! I guarantee you’ll be raking someone over the coals this season when their #1 QB goes down. great value on Rodgers and Lynch too, which makes up for you reaching a bit I think on Welker and Driver (I’m guessing Royal and DeSean weren’t still around at #70?).

@Josh: Yeah, Royal and Jackson were gone. I think people had their starting QB’s set and were filling in with WR and TE’s and wanted to get their starters before getting a backup QB which many in the league felt Warner was.

I think this is a fairly solid team. Rodgers and Warner should make for excellent matchup starts. Lynch was nice in round 5, even though he misses some games, but you grabbed Jackson, who should put up quality numbers when lynch is out. Add in Larry Johnson and kevin smith to compliment CJ, and you should have a good group of RB’s. I agree with you on winslow, he should have a bounceback year down in tampa. WR might be a bit questionable. Welker is good, but not overwhelming in non PPR. Driver is pretty old. I do like the picks of Steve smith and Bennett. I think either one of those two could be worth owning by the end of the season.

@AL KOHOLIC: standard scoring or PPR? how many WR you start? also, you have two first round picks because you traded forte for one? very nice. I would consider keeping boldin over white maybe, only because boldin missed 4 games last year and still had one more catch than white and 4 more TD’s. I understand that White is on the rise, but boldin is a steady top WR. If you averaged out boldin’s number over 16 games, he would have stats that would mirror Fitzgerald. Westbrook might be considered a risky play, due to injury, but whats new?

@cleaver596: yes i get his pick and mine,and i`m torn on the boldin white call,before getting hurt boldin was #1 wr so you might have talked me into that one,or should i keep them both and not westbrook then grab best 2 rb`s with my top 2 picks?

@AL KOHOLIC: Depends on what RB’s people are holding. In a ppr keeper league it will be hard to find two backs better than Westbrook. I’m a believer in White, but Boldin has been very consistent. I like White more because I don’t trust Warner to last all season and I think Fitz is now the de facto #1.

@Doc: hmm, I really don’t think there are 10 QBs better than Warner though. I guess that means guys like Palmer and Schaub were going ahead of him? In my draft I got Schaub at #60 and felt that was probably a reach, but Warner had gone at #39.

I’m a cards fan, its a total non issue. He’s in some pain yes but hes moving much better than he has in years. He hasn’t missed a practice. He played the whole 2nd half of last year with that injury and it was certainly worse then than it is now. Sure he could get hurt any # of other ways and I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. But Warner’s hip is less of a worry than Brady’s knee at this point. In other words, its not a worry.

Warner definitely could get hurt and miss time. But its more a matter of perception than reality that hes a much bigger risk than other guys. Brees has had several catastrophic injuries over his career but I haven’t heard one person mention him as an injury risk. Any QB is a risk to go down for the whole season, regardless of past history of not being hurt. I would think after Brady last year people would recognize that.

Actually the last two years of FF my #1 QB’s were both Free Agents (Favre, then Warner) and both were quite capable. In a 10 team league there are bound to be a couple surprise QB’s floating around that you can use if your #1 goes down. Just have to be alert for sleepers and jump on guys.

And if that fails, in a 10 team league every year there ends up being a team with 2 real good QB’s you can trade with. (One guy in my league last year had Rodgers, McNabb, AND Cutler all on his team). Now if it were a 14 team league I would say its a different story.